How to enable or disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) or Rootless Mode on Mac

Apple added a new security feature to OS X with El Capitan known as System Integrity Protection (SIP). The feature that is also commonly known as rootless mode makes the Mac more secure and less vulnerable to malware. This is especially true for malware that modifies system files. The rootless mode stops any user, System Administrator or otherwise from modifying certain OS files and directories. While it is recommended for everyone to keep the SIP or rootless mode enabled at all times, there are instances when you want to disable it in order to perform certain operations on your computer, use different utilities or when you want to use certain programs that cannot work with SIP enabled.

If you find SIP or rootless mode unnecessary and want to disable it on your Mac, then you have to follow a few simple steps. In this tutorial we will show you how to disable rootless mode on Mac running OS X El Capitan or later. You should be able to follow the same steps to disable rootless on macOS Sierra too. Before you proceed it is worth mentioning again that System Integrity Protection (SIP) is a security feature and disabling it will make your Mac more vulnerable.

Disabling SIP or Rootless mode on Mac

Reboot your Mac and before the OS X starts up press and hold the ‘Command + R‘ keys from your keyboard. This will allow you to enter the Mac Recovery mode.

Let go of the buttons when you see the Apple logo and a progress bar, this indicates that Mac is entering the Recovery Mode.

Now click on the ‘Utilities‘ option from the top menu bar and click on ‘Terminal‘.

In the Terminal app type ‘csrutil disable‘ and press enter.

Once you do so you will see ‘Successfully disabled System Integrity Protection.‘ on Terminal. Restart your Mac from the menu bar.

Done! You can enable the SIP or Rootless mode again by following the same steps as above, however this time you have to type ‘csrutil enable‘ in Terminal.